What to see in the spring sky, in light polluted viewing (other than Patrick's laser pointer)
The weather is so glorious, we finally hauled out our 11" CPC scope Monday night and took our first look at Saturn. We just bought our first scope last summer, but it was late enough that Saturn was dipping into the murky western sky, and when we viewed Saturn then, it looked like a dissipated two-handled sugar bowl What a difference Sunday night was! We could see the Cassini division and four moons--it was just lovely. We also took at look at the Orion nebula. We have a an oxygen filter we had never tried before, and though it says it should be used in dark skies, we used it on M42 it since the trapezium stars were so bright. The filter made the stars a faint blue against a swirled nebula and sections of deep black sky. What I was hoping I could learn from some of you, are what other spring sky sights we should try for in our backyard (until we can manage a trip to a dark sky area)? The light pollution in South Salt Lake was so bright, that even at 11 p.m. we could see to walk a around in the yard and I kept thinking the sun was trying to rise in the south, from the amount of glow. We learned some clusters and double stars last summer that still were nice seeing, even from our yard, but we don't know what we should look at now. Any favorites any of you would suggest? Thanks! Ann M. Blanchard Executive Assistant to the Assoc. VP Undergraduate Studies 110 Sill University of Utah (801) 581-3188 Ann.Blanchard@utah.edu
On 14 Mar 2007, at 15:59, Ann Blanchard wrote:
Any favorites any of you would suggest?
While not a "normal" favorite there is a fun event coming up on the 31st that you and others may want to try for (I mentioned this once before in early February so consider this a reminder). Seems that on that night a 2-km wide asteroid named 2006 VV2 will scoot past the Earth at about 10th magnitude, going so fast (1 arc minute per minute) that observers should actually be able to see the thing move. 3D orbit: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2006+VV2 Ephemeris: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Unusual/ K06V02V.html pw
Hi Ann, Don't worry. We'll all be getting under dark skies soon.
We have a an oxygen filter we had never tried before, and though it says it should be used in dark skies, we used it on M42 it since the trapezium stars were so bright. The filter made the stars a faint blue against a swirled nebula and sections of deep black sky. An O3 filter is a very good choice for M42. Another good choice is something like a Lumicon UHC. They'll both show you a lot of detail and each has strengths in different areas. The O3 will show lots of tendrils in the nebula. I suspect that your field of view might be a little small with a C11, unless you're up at a 30mm eyepiece or longer. It's possible that if you're focusing on the Trapezium that the 'interesting' stuff is outside the field of view. Try sweeping the scope a little farther away from the center and see what you can see. By the way, the blue color of the stars is a natural artifact of the filter. But when you're using a filter, you rarely care about stars anyway.
The light pollution in South Salt Lake was so bright... We learned some clusters and double stars last summer that still were nice seeing, even from our yard, but we don't know what we should look at now. Any favorites any of you would suggest? Thanks! Now that's a tough one. Moon and planets are always good choices. Double-stars and intensely-colored ones are often pretty decent for city viewing. Right off hand I'm not coming up with any, but perhaps someone else can pitch it. There are some open clusters you might enjoy--M35, 36, 37 and M38. They lie on a straight line from Gemini into Auriga. They won't knock you out from the city, but you might be happy just to see them at all. There's also M44 (the Beehive). It's large and a little sparse (better in binos or a fast scope), but it's bright. If you're really brave and are willing to engage your imagination, you might try for M65 and M66 (galaxies) in Leo. They're not much more than spots as seen from the city, but you CAN see them. Maybe.
Of course the best thing to do is just drive out to the desert and call in sick the next day. Tell them your Ebola is acting up. MC
participants (3)
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Ann Blanchard -
Michael Carnes -
Patrick Wiggins